A few hundred years ago, some slick-talking, amoral scumbuckets conned a lot of gullible people into believing that people of African descent were subnormal, subhuman creatures that could be used as slave labor. Even as it became obvious that this was an enormous, steaming heap of honkey bollocks, the racists doubled down on their flawed ideology.  “We need to be tougher on them, then it’ll work. Honest.”  So various idiots and greedheads tried to beat, shoot, and pummel black folk into “place”, and of course failed miserably.

About a hundred years ago, a disgruntled academic and his pet pamphleteer invented Communism, and some countries decided it was gospel truth and proceeded to implement it. Even as the people realized that Marxism/Leninism was an enormous, steaming heap of reindeer bollocks, the governments doubled down on their flawed ideology.  “We need to be better Communists, and then it will work. Honest.” The commies tried to beat, shoot, and pummel the proletariat into “place”, and in all but a few cases failed miserably.

Thus proving Rule One of Holes. In each of the above examples, people started digging a “hole” without at first realizing it, and then continued on even when it became clear that things were not working as planned. Sensible people would agree that further digging would deepen the hole and so one should stop, put the dirt back, and do something else instead of enabling the entombing of one’s self by digging ever deeper. Alas, many people are not sensible.

Starting in the late 1970’s and since then enthusiastically promoted by the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush administrations, the Hole Du Jour has been “Supply-Side Economics”: the idea that redistributing tax breaks and benefits towards the already wealthy will create a stronger and more prosperous economy for everyone. It seemed (like racism and Communism, once) plausible to many; at least, at first it did.  But as it turns out, this idea has been proven to be an enormous, steaming heap of bison bollocks, and one that has dug us all into one helluva deep hole at that. Trillions of dollars deep, and deepening by the day.

So how does your friendly neighborhood supply-sider react to the news? Why, just like the racists and commies did: they are doubling down on their flawed ideology. “We need to cut even more, spend even less, give even more to the rich, then it’ll work. Honest.” Sounds familiar, eh?

Continuing to dig will work just as well as it did in the past: that is to say, not at all. It’s time to stop digging, climb out, and try another approach that does not involve the digging of our own fiscal grave. Rule One of Holes, folks. Learn it. Love it. Live it.

Mr. B & C